Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting UP Michigan, well north of Flint anyway

Well it looks like I will be going to Michigan to hunt the UP, unless a miracle happens and I draw out in Wyoming with 0 preference points. Any advice on rifles and shot length? I know how to stay warm but how do the natives hunt up there? Stands, drives what is the usual plan? Private property north of Flint.

Historically, bait piles and stands.
Much of the UP is nearly to virtually impossible to drive, rugged, wet, and some big, thick woods.
Good luck!

What part of the UP? I used to live outside of the Soo and hunted over by Bruce Crossing. Over there we did not use bait, looked for trails and hunted the edges of new growth after logging was done on state and federal land. There is lots of different types of hunting done there depending on the area. Private land or public?

Da UP is a big place with varying terrain, hense different methods and equipment. You'll hafta narrow it down a bit before you'll get much detailed information.

OK Have to ask the guys I'm hunting with. I know there is a huge motorcross area there so it must be private. The guys I will be hunting with have hit several deer on their dirt bikes. I fished the Ausable river when I was a kid up there back in 1970.

There are areas full of deer up there and huge areas with very few deer, like way up on the hub. The public land areas can be huge. If I was to go in cold, and I might do that this fall up there, I would pick an area with decent deer numbers, sop on public land and follow a good size creek till I could a deer trail crossing the water. Get up on a hill or hunker in some rock outcroppings or something if it is hilly. If it's flat , then I use a climber. I have not hunted there yet but likely will go this fall. I will be looking around in a few weeks. A very fast and easy way to tell if there are decent deer numbers is look at the cedar trees. If they are all eaten up below the browse line , there are deer there. I have seen Hemlock , white pine and cedar trees untouched in western U.P. and rove down a dirt road the day after it rained and not a single deer track. I looked at such a nice 40 ac. but passed cause there were very few deer. Delta co. is likely your best bet for decent deer and not too over run with hunters.

Ihookem
What does "sop" mean?

Darn
Darn correct spelling is more harm than good. I would stop on public land and walk a river or good size creek.

Well private land north of Flint, farm and woods. baiting and stands just like Texas but cold.

So I'm lost. Are you hunting northern Flint or across the bridge in the UP ? Huge diff for a lot of reasons..

There is no more baiting in Michigan last I heard/read anyways.

Things could change again .....

Firearm restrictions in the southern half of the lower as well.

Baiting is still legal in the U.P.

O.P. There's about 225 miles of land between Flint and the Bridge. The State has many public ORV trails, especially in the northern lower. If you could give us a county, we could better help you out.

cf

Firearm restrictions are in the bottom 1/3 of the lower...north of that there are no restrictions. Flint is basically SE Michigan so you need to be way more specific. The UP is a very wild place and its very very heavily forested...and very cold. Average snowfall is well over 200 inches per year in many places so plan accordingly. Its an easy place to disappear and/or freeze to death. We are still locked up with ice and I've got well over a foot of snow in my yard as I type to give you an idea.

The ban on baiting is in the lower peninsula only and baiting and stand hunting is the name of the game in the upper due to terrain. Shots can be anywhere from 10ft to 300 yards (think abandoned logging roads, creek beds etc, and heavy cedar swamps). Take a versatile cartridge like a .308 or a 270 and you will have nothing to worry about. Load a heavy for caliber bullet to reduce meat loss with close range shots should they present. Its a lot like hunting in Northern Maine or Ontario if you've ever hunted there.

The deer numbers are not as high as they are in the lower due to the lack of agricultural land but there are some monsters up here. Use your brain, watch the wind and put your time in. We've taken some wonderful trophies in our camp over the years.

There is tons of public land and pressure is relatively low if you can walk more than 15 ft from a road. Be careful though...help is a long way out if you get in trouble and cell phones generally don't work.

Most importantly have fun and enjoy the scenery. About as good as it gets IMHO...a very special place.

The Ausable river is in the Northern portion of the lower peninsula from
Fredrick to around Oscoda and is around 150 miles long and kind of cuts across the middle of the state to the east. A lot of those areas have ORV trails. You should be able to use a rifle. But more information is needed. You are a long way from the UP.

You can use a rifle there. Baiting is generally allowed and practiced, but that is in flux with pending new CWD regs. Most but not all areas expect shots under 100 yards, because a small hill or trees will keep you from seeing any farther.

Your right. We may go up there for some sight seeing but after the clarification we won't need to hunt anywhere else. Seems my invite was a better deal than I originally thought.

My Dad was stationed at Wurtsmith AFB when I was 11 and I fished the Ausable and Van Etton lake, first time I ever fished in America as we were stationed overseas from the time I was 4 months old till we got to Michigan. Gotta say I loved it even the snow ( must have shoveled tons of it!). However I guess I will take my 7-08 M7 Remington and my rifled barrel 20 gauge and see what comes by. I always wanted to track one down in the snow.

Saginaw and Gratiot counties. Wonder if I can talk them into going north instead.

I'm thinking you can leave your 7-08 at home and pack the shotgun. You will be in civilization compared to north in a deer camp. Not that I would call Saginaw civil. I'ts a great place to be from. The more you post, the further south you are going.

Saginaw and Gratiot counties are in the lower middle of the mitten, a long ways and another world away from the UP. Generally greater deer numbers in the area you are are going, but not a UP hunting experience.

Michigan is one of the larger states and a drive from Monroe to Copper Harbor is probably 10+ hours. The bulk of the deer population is in the lower half of the mitten, but it is mostly private land and access can sometimes be difficult. The UP has a lot of state and national forest and the evolving habitat has reduced the deer population.

If you are looking for deer, the two counties you listed will do you well, if you are looking for a deer hunting experience, go to the UP!

405wcf

I'm retired so the experience is a good idea, like to fish the Ausable again. I could get up there in early October and stay til after rifle season is over. Too bad I know so few people able to do something like that.

I wouldn't fish Van Etten Lake unless you want to glow in the dark. PFAS up the wazoo in that lake from Wurtsmith AFB. They're having a hell of a time getting the Air Force to man up and clean it. Damn shame. Used to be a terrific perch lake. The Holy Waters of the Au Sable are still some of the best trout fishing in the nation. Truly a Blue Ribbon trout stream.

Saginaw and Gratiot are good deer producing counties. Mostly agricultural and private with the majority of it below the rifle line. The UP is truly a great hunt as 405wcf said. You have to work for your deer, but it sounds like you have the time to do it. Nothing like the feeling of taking a nice buck out of the north woods.

October is a good time of year to be there. The fall color change is great to see and spend time driving around the northern part of the state. The fishing can be pretty good that time of year as well.

I went to Negaunee via Marquette airport, and shot a "Raging Russian", ha. It was a 200# Eurasian hog, extremely good eating! We drove up a Nickel Mine my friend had to visit for his work then. It reminded me of East, Texas. No Palmetto, and laurel swamps instead of Youpon thickets, but very similar. Of course, they have big rock outcroppings up there too, unlike the part of East Texas I'm from! ha. I saw 2 huge does ( big as burros! Real "Swamp Donkies"!) my goodness those deer are huge! Have a ball Pard!

fwiw,

A look-see at the stats of bucks taken in the last 10-15 years are pretty appalling for the UP. We have hunted it, the western side, yearly for better than 35 years and the change in quality is undeniable. We are not the only long-term camp to take note. The impact of wolves killing worn-out mature active breeding bucks is borne out by the statistics. Of course, there are always outliers. The winters were always an issue--but add wolves to the equation in the more remote areas and recovery for a population of mature bucks becomes a huge problem. There was never a surplus in the first place and the equation has changed.

In contrast, the Lower has been turning out numbers of excellent bucks.

Saginaw or Gratiot counties, particularly on private ground--sounds like a very generous invite.

As baiting has thankfully been outlawed, actual hunting skills will be in vogue. Personally, if room to roam is limited, I'd be looking for a squeeze to sit and then try not to sit in the middle of it...:) At that time of year, bucks are keeping pretty tight tabs on doe groups and if you are seeing good doe activity, (preferably more than one group of girls) sooner or later a dude will be by. The older animals, imho, are capable of patterning you long before you "pattern" them regardless of attempts to cover scent, so during odd hours a guy can score a good one. Right or wrong, once we are set-up, we don't go into the area we am watching. Older bucks tend to use the herd's eyes as scouts--whether they intend to or not, I do not know. But if an older doe blows your cover in her territory, she may make it a point to make your existence known to the world in the days to come. Females sure can be vindictive...

fwiw, ymmv, bwthfdik

The UP is having a tough winter, you may want to wait and see how much deer loss happens.

The dam does do that in Texas too!

I'm curious how rickt300 fared in the 2019 Michigan deer season. Report?

Grouse hunted the Up off and on for last 20 years or so . First few years lots of birds and saw lots of deer ( no big bucks) then the wolves took over. Last two trips(last 3years ago this fall ) saw more wolves than deer actually never saw a deer. I have dogs and hunted primarily areas that you were not supposed to be driving in, we hardly saw a deer track and very few grouse. I love to deer hunt too but I would never go to the UP to deer hunt, and I guess I've made my last trip grouse hunting. Really bothers me that there has been such a decline in the quality of the hunting up there, as it has been said it's a beautiful place to be in October.

Love hunting the UP. North of powers mi.